An Open Letter to the New York Mets' Ryan Church

Migraines suck. And they are hard to treat. Especially when a trigger includes stimuli such as loud noises and bright lights. You face this stimuli every single day when you are a professional baseball player - making recovery for you all the more difficult.

A new study out of Australia published online July 16th 2008 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviewsoffers new hope: Normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy for migraine and cluster headache shows significant promise. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the 'therapeutic administration of 100% oxygen at environmental pressures greater than one atmosphere, while normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT) is oxygen administered at one atmosphere.'

Michael Jackson and Terrell Owens have used them. Owens used it in order to return from injury to play in Super Bowl XXXIX.

The studies reported a 'significant increase in the proportion of patients who had relief with HBOT compared to sham therapy."

While hyperbaric chambers are not cheap and therefore not readily available to the general public, I think that the Mets could certainly afford to give you a shot at this.